


WEB OF FATE

by Rainingsun02811



Category: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Video Games), The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: But not before Frodo leaves, Giant Spiders, Gondor isn't a good place right now, I'm trying any help is appreciated, Multi, Niether is Mordor, Original Spider Characters, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Lord of the Rings, Post-War of the Ring, Tags May Change, Talion makes bad life choices, The New Ring, Turn Out Shelob isn't Completely evil, mix of cannons, only slightly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 01:42:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14438784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainingsun02811/pseuds/Rainingsun02811
Summary: The One Ring has fallen and the New Ring has risen in its place.  To keep the Bright Lord from rising, and to give Middle Earth a chance, Talion is sent back.  He just has to stop Celebrimbor, cleanse Mordor, and help Gondor remember its long buried secrets all before the last ship sails to the Undying Lands.





	WEB OF FATE

**Author's Note:**

> Another story, I'm new to this fandom any help is appreciated! Also I'm on Tumblr at this link: http://rainingsun2811.tumblr.com/ come and visit!

Shelob hissed as she moved around her web in the darkness beneath the Mordor.  It had only been two months since Gollum had brought her the two hobbits expecting her to kill them.  Two months since they burned and blinded her with the light of the Silmaril. Two months since she had been gutted, entered the higher parts of her caverns in Cirith Ungol, or hunted those Uruks and Orcs that poisoned her land with the remains of Sauron and Saruman’s darkness.  Two short months since she had scared the hobbits onto the right path and let them beat and burn her to give them the courage to go on. The Great Deceiver’s voice rang through her head, from when he abandoned her on that balcony with the soldiers marching towards them so long ago.  The same words she had said to Talion when giving back his ring, _sacrifices must be made._

Sauron leaving her had left her enraged, but giving up that ring had gutted her to the core.  It was so bright, so radiant, so _refined_ , and it fit onto her finger oh so perfectly, almost like Celebrimbor and Talion had made it just for her.  An endless supply of Light to fill her belly. It left her with a primal ache that gnawed at her gut with a ferocity that she had never known.  She had always craved the Light like her mother before her, craved the fullness it brought after consuming it, craved the warmth it left her with that she had always lacked.  It was so much more than just a ring, it was a piece of pure, harnessed energy right in her hand; unlike that thing her mother almost devoured. It wasn’t the fact that it was to bright, or radiant, it was that the Light of Galadriel was completely unrestrained.  It didn’t glow softly, or have warmth radiate throughout her whole being as her ring, _Talion’s Ring_ she corrected herself, did.  It only burned, and scorched, leaving nothing untouched, not even her sight was spared.   _Sacrifices must be made._

She had done everything, sacrificed everything, to slow down Sauron, even going as far as sacrificing her own precious children by having them infest the Great Greenwood and then transforming it into Mirkwood.  For their sacrifice, she let them feast on whatever went into the forest; whether it was Men, Elves, Dwarrow, or Orcs it didn’t matter, just as long as that forest was disabled, cutting off an entire volume of land for him to control.

She cut off Talion from the Ringmaker, Celebrimbor, to give him time to regain an infinitesimally small, but vitally important, part of himself, even if he didn’t realize it.  That tiny candle of doubt was vital to him resisting Celebrimbor’s final effort to take control on top of Barad-dur. She had shown him his own future, even let him use her children in his war-- _something he had always been uncomfortable with_ , she thought and was only ever so slightly relieved--she had come to him, and the Ringmaker, in a form she had not used in milenia.  She had let her precious light go to save Arda from its own darkness,

She even sacrificed herself when the two hobbits came.  She had foresaw their failure, their weakness, and the enslavement of entire civilizations because of it.  Men’s, and by extension Hobbit’s, futures were notoriously hard to devine, as they were exempt from the music of the world and their choices changed with the wind.  They had been gifted Free Will from Eru Iluvatar, and gifted the permission to die, and die in peace. All branches of men had a peculiar type of magic--most races wouldn’t even consider it magic it was so ingrained into them--they had the ability to truly give something a name, and to act on their own will.  Two very important facts that seemed to escape the elves minds.

Her body shifted as one of her numerous children came to her, plucking the web as she walked, their scent drifting to her nose.  It still hurt to move to much, but her child, her daughter, needed her. She remembered her own mother who after feasting, would come to her to stroke her hair or nuzzle her in the web of darkness she had spun.  Out of all her numerous siblings, Shelob was the only to survive her mother’s hunger and wrath. The only one to survive her mother’s starvation at the hands of their father when he sent Balrogs after her. A hunger that followed her to this day, and nipped at her heels constantly, driving her to consume anything in her path.  Unlike her mother there was only one thing she wouldn’t devour, refused to even consider eating, were her children.

Another Vibration drug her out of her thoughts.  Talion had named her daughter Calithil, after the light on the night she was found following him, and how she had one of her legs almost stained white.  Her only child to be seen as part of the Light instead of darkness. “ _What’s wrong?”_  Shelob asked, clicking and hissing to her across her web, letting her drop a wrapped up Uruk in front of Shelob and then snuggled into her.  She had been one of her children to follow and guide Talion while he was still on Arda, to allow her mother access to the man, and to help pull him back from the shadow within himself with the sting of her bite.

 _“You’re still hurt,”_ Calithil replied, _“I brought this for you, men are taking them into Minas Tirith.”_ She crawled on top of her mother, and rested on her back as Shelob ate, she would eat more soon. Something was coming, the New Ring needed to be destroyed, but how?  Would anyone want to destroy something so radiant? _No,_  Shelob answered herself, _No one would willingly destroy it.  I would devour it if needed, but at what cost would that come?  What wrath would it bring?_  It was too dangerous to be around it.

A familier tremor ran through her.  This was no ordinary tremor, this was one in the unseen world, a vibration that should have dissipated by now.   _Talion,_ she realized, she _felt_ the strings of fate realign themselves, singing and vibrating a song of incredible Light, but also of crushing darkness if he should fail.  The world in front of her slipped away. And transformed images of the Light going extinguished, of people enslaved, her children slaughtered.  Talion in chains, and unable to die once again as Celebrimbor marched forward.

A familiar voice, called to her, and rang through the changing songs magestic in its own way and drowned out all other noise, _Eru Iluvatar_.  Her breath quickened, and her pain dissipated.  The All-Father, drowning in the Light and the Dark causing her to shut her unseen eyes, let her feel relief.  “You will help him, and if you succeed all shall be forgiven.”

Her ears rang and her pain slammed into her as he retreated, Calithil hissed and clicked around her, seeming to sense her pain.   Another vision came to her of Talion in a gleaming white city. He was in Minas Tirith. _“Mother?  Mother!”_

 _“Talion is alive, go to Minas Tirith and bring him to me.”_ Shelob said, her daughter was still panicking.  

 _“But!  He can’t be I found him!”_ Calithil protested.

 _“Silence!”_  Shelob’s intent rang throughout the chamber, _“you will go and bring him to me, no harm will come to you.”_ Of that Shelob was sure, Talion knew Calithil, he named her and kept her stubborn daughter safe, as she kept him safe. He knew how precious children were.  He knew not to refuse her. She grabbed at the darkness around her and started to weave, and forced herself to move despite the pain. She would heal in time, but time was a luxury she didn’t have.


End file.
